The Great Outdoors Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who love being outdoors enjoying nature and wilderness, and learning about the required skills and equipment. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I was recently outside in my backyard in a sandy area, and I found this spider. I live in Texas, and have never seen anything like it. I have done some research, and found nothing. It might be hard to see in the picture but this is a green & orange spider. Does anybody know what it is?
I am fairly sure that you’ve found a Crab Spider based on the entry in this website, which looks nearly exactly like your photo.
I agree that it looks like a crab spider- they are super cool! The tend to hide on flowers (and can change color to match the flower) to pounce and prey upon visiting pollinators like bees, flies, and butterflies. They don't build webs at all, they just use those long front legs to grab unsuspecting visitors. Check out open flowers in your yard. They are part of a very large family of spiders (Thomisidae) and there is more info on Bug Guide (a great entomology website) about identification. I have seen them sitting on or under flowers with those front legs up and it is unnerving...of course you can check this out on on youtube, not for the faint-hearted...
